The on-site disposal of empty glass containers such as beer bottles, soft drink bottles, and the like, has long posed handling and storage problems for bars, restaurants and other establishments where large numbers of glass bottles can accumulate. Such problems have been accentuated in recent years by the growing international recycling movement, which encourages the recycling of glass bottles as an alternative to discarding them at land fills and other dump sights. Obviously, glass bottles retained for recycling purposes must be stored until they can be picked up for transport to a recycling site. Accordingly, valuable floor space often must be utilized to store the empty bottles in crates or other containers on the premises until such time that they can be delivered to or picked up by a recycling center. The dedication of such storage space can become an acute problem in bars and restaurants where large numbers of empty glass bottles can result from even one evening's operation.
Even at non-recycling establishments where glass bottles are simply discarded with other trash in a dumpster such that on-site storage is less of a problem, undue amounts of time and effort still must be expended in handling and transporting the bottles. In a bar, for example, local trash receptacles positioned behind the bar for receiving empty bottles tend to be filled quickly since each empty bottle takes up a large volume in the receptacle. Consequently, such receptacles must be carried manually and frequently to a dumpster that is often located in an alley behind the building. Thus, valuable time that could be used waiting on customers often is devoted to transporting and discarding empty glass bottles. Furthermore, trash cans and other receptacles located behind the bar for receiving the empty glass bottles tend to take up valuable space and interfere with the efficient movement of the bartender or waiter. Even where glass bottles are stored temporarily on-site for recycling, they still must be collected in small lots behind the bar and transported frequently to a storage area to await delivery to or pick up by a recycling concern.
Thus, a continuing and heretofore unaddressed need persists for an apparatus and methodology adapted to address effectively and economically the aforementioned and other problems associated with the storage, disposal, and recycling of empty glass bottles in bars, restaurants, and the like. It is to the provision of such a methodology and an implementing apparatus that the present invention is primarily directed.